Date:23/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/23/stories/2008102356141700.htm

Business

Lenovo unveils servers for SMBs

Anand Parthasarathy

Adds user-friendly software layer to the core IBM technology

BANGALORE: Having addressed the burgeoning market of lay laptop users with seven models last week, Lenovo, China-based inheritors of the estwhile IBM PC business, on Wednesday turned to the server needs of small and medium business segment.

The five offerings in the ThinkServer range — three in tower configuration and two as rack mountables — are all fuelled by the latest quad core IntelXeon processor and flow from the strong IBM ‘Think’ brand of computing platforms.

But as Lenovo India Managing Director Amar Babu explained at the launch event here, the company has added new layers of user-friendly software to attract small enterprises whose payroll may not include too many system engineers. The server offerings start at Rs. 45,000.

Last week’s consumer notebook offerings range from the high end U330, an ultra thin (0.9 inch) 13-inch Centrino-2 platform with touch sensitive multimedia controls and Dolby Home Theatre for just under Rs. 64,000 to the S9 and S10 — 9-inch and 10-inch sub notebooks fuelled by Intel’s new Atom processor.

In between, the offerings include the Y 330 an ‘infotainment’ platform (Rs. 45,000); the Y 430, a 14-inch mainstream platform for high definition video, (Rs. 41,490) and two 12-inch models, G230 and G430 (Rs. 33,000).

Also launched was the sole desktop — The H Series PC, cannily ‘family-proofed’ with an anti-bacterial keyboard and a rescue-and-recover feature.